From Water Safaris to Dry Dunes

Fly to Windhoek in Namibia, to stay overnight at the Am Weinberg Boutique Hotel in the up-market suburb of Klein Windhoek, and head to the Soulstice Spa if you’re looking for rejuvenating treatments such as Flotation therapy and deep tissue massages. Enjoy your evening relaxing at the hotel’s Sky Lounge to enjoy sundowners and tapas or sample local Namibian wines and exceptional gastronomical dishes.

Head to the family-run Okonjima Bush Camp, nestled in the foothills of the Omboroko Sandstone Mountains, and home of the Africat Foundation. The lodge is the perfect place to learn about Namibia’s carnivores, with a tour of the foundation to see the conservation work in action. Take a game drive in the morning or afternoon to see thriving leopards and cheetahs across the Okonjima Nature Reserve, and track leopards and hyenas with an experienced ranger to come close to the big cats. The lodge also offers night drives for a chance to spot porcupines and honey badgers, as well as walking trails to see some of the 250 species of birds found in the reserve, like the bare-cheeked babbler.

Set amongst ochre boulders (and some of the most beautiful scenery found in Namibia) is Camp Kipwe, where you will be staying for two nights. During your stay, head out with one of the experienced local camp guides on a morning or afternoon game drive, or nature walk, to track the desert adapted elephants and possibly even an endangered black rhino. A visit to UNESCO World Heritage Site, Twyfelfontein, for the ancient Bushman rock engravings is a must during your trip, along with seeing the Burnt Mountains and Organ Pipes. Spend your evenings cooling off in the plunge pool or on a veranda terrace with a sundowner.

Stay at The Strand in Namibia’s ‘Adventure Capital’ to try some incredible activities during your journey between Damaraland and Sossusvlei. Here, you can take a scenic flight over the Skeleton Coast, named by ancient Bushmen as ‘The Land God Made In Anger’ due to its extreme climate, landscape and now its shipwreck shores. Head out kayaking with the seals in Walvis Bay and quad bike over towering sand dunes during your two night stay.

Be surrounded by desert and mountains during your two nights stay in the unique Hoodia Desert Lodge. This is a fantastic base from which to explore Sossusvlei and Sesriem, being only a 20 minute drive to the Sesriem Gate. Here, you can see tall red sand dunes and eerie salt pans dotted with dead acacia trees, as well as climb one of the world’s tallest sand dunes: Big Daddy. Try one of the lodge’s ‘off the beaten track’ excursions where you can learn about the petrified dunes, the endemic dune lark, and ‘secret’ canyons, as well as have an ultimate picnic lunch surrounded by camel thorn trees in the desert.